Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

As one of the few experts who only preaches what I practice - and what has worked for hundreds of my students - here's the real deal on the 7 key strategies that need to be firing on all cylinders for your business to grow.

Questions I get from smart cookies like you all the time:

David, what does it take togain pre-eminencein my market?

How can I become thego-to personin my topic/niche?

Why am I still wrestling with thefeast-or-famine revenueroller coaster?

How can Iset and get premium feeswhen clients are tight with budgets?

How can Iexpandmy reach,growmy list &buildmy platform?

How can I recession-proof my businessso that I make money regardless of the economyand industry ups and downs?

I'm plenty busy -why aren't I making more money?

All these questions have their answershidden in one of 7 key areasof your thought-leadership business as a consultant, speaker, coach, author or independent professional...

Let's explore each one - and see how you can tune, tweak, and improve anything that's missing, not performing, or could use a major overhaul in YOUR business...

1. Speaking- obviously, this is my area of expertise. Having a solid speaker marketing strategy is vital to help you gain visibility in front of audiences who matter (aka buyers and decision-makers); generate leads for your back-end professional services; and generate significant revenue in paid professional speaking fees for your workshops, seminars, keynotes, trainings, workshops, and private events. Speaking is one of the most powerful lead-generators and revenue-generators in your expertise-driven business.

But how do you scale this above and beyond the audiences that you can reach through live speaking? The next pie slice has your answer...

2. Online Courses- The most successful experts, speakers, consultants, and coaches areembracing the power of online courses, e-learning, and digital distribution methods for their expertise. The first benefit here is pure scalability - your business can reach thousands (or tens of thousands) of ideal customers, prospects, and buyers through the power of online courses. As a source of revenue, online courses are hard to beat because you create it once - and get paid over and over and over. This allows you to create a freedom-based business where your value is no longer tied to your personal time, attention, and presence. Jackpot!!

But now how do you reach those thousands of eager prospects, buyers, and decision-makers? Let's look at the next piece of the pie...

3. Webinars- The day I fully embraced webinar marketing back in 2012, my entire business - heck, my entire life - changed dramatically. We are living in an "Attention Economy" - meaning, when it comes to getting clients, you first need to earn their attention and only then do you get the chance to earn their money :o) The #1 best way to deliver massive value to your subscribers, fans, followers, prospects, and buyers is with content-rich webinars that teach actionable strategies, tactics, and tools. You need to be radically helpful and radically generous. This is what converts strangers to friends and friends to prospects and prospects to paying customers who love you, buy, repeat, recommend, and refer like crazy.

But webinars presented here and there sporadically and without a clear strategy are not going to do the trick. So you need...

4. Funnels- A marketing funnel is simply a fancy word for a programmatic sequence of touchpoints - emails, videos, blog posts, webinars, PDFs, and other helpful communications - delivered in a specific sequence to a specific subset of people specifically interested in a certain one of your products, services, or programs. A marketing funnel is your lifeline that keeps you connected to prospects who are at various phases of the buying cycle - from merely interested in the topic (browsers) all the way to committed to investing in your solutions/services (buyers). A well-designed marketing funnel will take a cold lead from initial contact to signed contract in a pre-determined sequence designed to both add value, and extend offers and invitations to your relevant investable opportunities. Without a marketing funnel in place, you will never get off the "feast or famine" revenue roller coaster. And worse, you risk alienating people who are NOT interested in buying today while completely missing out on sales to the hot prospects who are ready to buy right now.

But what about long-term stability and predictable revenue? The best way to share your expertise and gain this benefit is...

5. Consulting/Coaching- Having longer-term engagements on your service menu - such as 90-day coaching packages or year-long consulting programs or monthly facilitated mastermind roundtables - is a great way to increase your impact on client results. Remember, people don't really value transactions - but they VERY much value programs and services that deliver transformation. And delivering results over a sustained period of time is the best way to guarantee your clients' success. Because of the greater depth, breadth, and duration of these engagements, it is much easier to get premium fees from premium clients who are deeply committed to the transformation you offer that will get them the results they truly want. These longer-term engagements also provide the foundation of your financial stability because the income is significant and ongoing.

But then how do you capture "lightning in a bottle" to let all the folks who can't afford your consulting or coaching know you are the real-deal resource who can help them when they're ready to transform?

6. Publishing- One of the best ways to do this is with publishing a nonfiction business book based on the expertise you already have. Writing, publishing, and promoting a business book that captures your methodology, training, and tools is an outstanding way to build your platform, expand your reach, and establish your authority as the "go-to" expert in your specific topic, niche, or industry. After all, you "wrote the book" on it so you must be a highly credible expert. And - some tough love coming up here - your book needs to be excellent. Not just good or very good, but truly great. It does NOT need to be long - in fact, the bestselling business books of all time are less than 120 pages in a small 5x7 trade publishing format. But just writing a book for the sake of having a book (and a crappy one at that) is definitely not going to help promote your expertise. That's why the book needs to be marketed, launched, and sold for the long-term impact it can have on your professional success.

And what makes all of these components really take off? It's about how you articulate and distinguish them with your messaging and packaging, which means you need to master...

7. Copywriting- Copywriting has nothing to do with patents, trademarks and copyright notices ;o) "Copy" is written content conveyed through online media and print materials. Copywriting is one of the most essential elements of effective marketing and successful selling. It is the art and science of strategically delivering words (whether written or spoken) that get people to take some form of action. Good copy resonates with the reader and is relevant, valuable, attractive, and effective in communicating the value, impact, results, outcomes, and emotional payoffs tied to investing in and benefitting from your products, services, or programs. The better you are at copywriting, the more prospects, leads, and sales you will generate because you'll be able to quickly get your prospects to "get it, need it, and want it" when considering buying from you.

Strap in and hang on - you are getting the mother lode of product development ideas right here in this post. Yes, that's right - below are 50+ ideas to help you productize, monetize and distribute your expertise.

Why is this important to you? (Yes, MORE important than reading about 50 shades of whips, handcuffs and lingerie...)

Well, here are some questions to help you answer that for yourself...

As a speaker, author, or thought-leading professional, do you...

Feel exhausted by long days filled with time-consuming one-on-one client work, running from one meeting to the next, and an endless stream of emails and phone calls...

Find yourself frustrated by chasing the broken business model of trading hours for dollars...

Fear that your business is taking over your life with less and less free time for creative play, family and friends, and proactive planning and business development...

Wish you could LEVERAGE yourself and your knowledge to generate more PASSIVE income...

Want to figure out how to work with better clients while making even MORE money and working LESS? (Yes, really!!)

Shhh... Here's the SECRET you don't want your friends, clients, spouse, neighbors, or colleagues to know: Although you are very successful, you still want MORE... and you're really not sure how to get to that next level...

Somehow, some way, you want to grow your thought leadership platform so you get:

MORE Leads

MORE Clients

MORE Consulting Work

MORE Speaking Engagements

MORE Profits

MORE Passive Income

and 100-300% MORE Revenue...

Which will in turn, help you generate:

MORE Clarity

MORE Confidence

MORE Control

MORE Cashflow

MORE Time Off

MORE Leverage

and dramatically MORE Freedom...

The secret to adding LEVERAGE to your business is to DIVERSIFY the methods and media with which you share your expertise with the world.

You can use the online course methodology to create ANY of the following:

This whiteboard was FULL - and I mean jam-packed - with ideas, notes, bullets, to-dos, action items, brainstorms, and some jottings about the "next big thing" for our professional speaking and inbound marketing firm.

Perhaps you have a similar whiteboard in your office. Or a wall filled with post-it notes. Or plaques and awards on your bookcase. Or other visual reminders of where your company has been and all that you have accomplished.

Tremendously exciting. Truly.

The only problem: it was tremendously exciting in your past. With every day, every week, every month - hell, every hour - that you do not ACT on those ideas, they start to turn on you.

They are no longer motivators - they are pacifiers that remind you how great you WERE. What you imagined would BE. And what - for better or worse - didn't quite turn out the way you envisioned last week, last month or last year.

In my case, my office whiteboard was holding onto ideas and initiatives from 6 months ago.Yikes! Totally useless to me today. EXCEPT it made me feel good about how gosh darn smart I am and what big plans I have/had (NOT!)

When Steve Jobs came back as interim CEO of Apple in 1997, he had every award, plaque, and completed project plan removed from the walls and hallways of Apple. He did not want any visual reminders of the past. All he wanted his teams to see was their future.

NEW plans, CURRENT prototypes, and UPCOMING projects were all over Apple's hallways, offices, and conference rooms. Everything was future-focused and kept rigorously up to date.

What do you need to erase from your whiteboard? Which awards should you put away? Which of your accolades are keeping you stuck in the past?

Put that stuff away.

Look to your CURRENT future. In the words of Steve Jobs - it will help you "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." And it will help you achieve your NEXT level of "insanely great."

Want to apply for your Speaker Strategy Call to see how you can IMPLEMENT some of these concepts right away? Apply for your call here.

3 Reasons LinkedIn Beats Email

1. Red Velvet Rope - This is a term popularized in the marketing arena by Michael Port. It means there's an exclusive, members-only feel to your marketing. It's not for everyone - and not everyone qualifies. You need to be "in the club." When you reach out to a fellow Group member on LinkedIn, you both are in the club and there's a strong element of peer-to-peer belonging that encourages community, communication, and responsiveness. Can't say that about a cold call or a plain old email!

2. Priority Seal - Most executives and business owners feel overwhelmed by email. When they're not tackling the email monster (click here if you'd like to master your email!), they are wall-to-wall with meetings, phone calls, and their daily dose of dealing with crises. LinkedIn messages DO trigger an email notification but you have the choice of responding via email or via LinkedIn -- and LinkedIn messages (for most of us) are few and far between so they give the impression of being more important, more filtered, and more personally relevant. Think of it as a FedEx envelope arriving in your daily mail. Sure, you can ignore it - you can toss it - you might not get to it for a few days. But chances are greater that you will because of curiosity - a basic trait of human nature.

3. More Attractive Return Address Envelope - LinkedIn messages tend to be shorter than emails - and a shorter note merits a shorter response. You've just given your prospects, clients, and connections a huge "out" because they do NOT need - and probably would not even consider - sending you a long, involved response. If you send a short, succinct note to reconnect with a past client - they'll respond with a short, succinct note and you'll probably use LinkedIn to make plans to connect in a longer format offline (phone call, lunch, coffee, in-person meeting). Yours will be a fast, easy and appealing note to respond to - so your chances of getting a prompt response just went up considerably!

LinkedIn in Action and Results

I have been using LinkedIn to reconnect with old contacts and to connect with anyone signing up for my newsletter. I do this with the LinkedIn for Outlook utility showing if anyone sending me an email (or completing any website form that is emailed to me) has a LinkedIn account. As my connection numbers build, more website visitors, book readers, and subscribers are now asking to connect with me. We’ve also done a few email blasts to our database asking for connections to those who have LinkedIn accounts. Over the last two years we can directly trace a few hundred thousand dollars in speaking/workshop or long term/ongoing consulting fees that started with these (re)connections.

3 LinkedIn Secrets from Jim's Success:

1. As my friend and Speaker Hall of Fame member Dr. Alan Zimmerman likes to say, "your business comes from your business." (He's a guy who enjoys a 92% repeat and referral rate from his client base so he's walking that talk.) Note that Jim Clemmer is also generating his success not ONLY from new connections - but from RE-connections. Try it for yourself and see what conversations you can generate with the folks who already know you, love you, and have given you money in the past.

2. You gotta ask for the connection. Note that Jim's strategy also involved email blasts to his list proactively asking them to connect on LinkedIn. And not just once - but several times over the past 2 years. Remember to make your social media scripts appealing, relevant, and NOT focused on you - but focused on the value you'd like to deliver to your connections.

3. It takes time and there are both direct and indirect benefits. Notice that Jim said, "over the last two years" - not the last 2 weeks or 2 months. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Notice also that he said he could DIRECTLY trace several hundred thousand dollars of new business. That's great - and in addition, Jim has likely generated that much money or more INDIRECTLY, meaning that people didn't hire him FROM LinkedIn but BECAUSE they saw something he contributed, received a connection update, or otherwise "bumped into" Jim's name, content, ideas, website, blog or network - and were prompted to engage with him.

Welcome to our carefully chosen list of thought leadership marketing tools. We use these tools here at Do It! Marketing World HQ and highly recommend them to our clients and partners.

Good news: Many of these tools are free. A few are not. Almost all come with a risk-free "try before you buy" option to make sure you love them as much as we do. Please note that if you decide to make a purchase, I may (and probably will) receive a small commission. This commission is at no extra cost to you, and in fact, MOST of these links contain special discounts, free trials, or bonuses only available through these links.

With that said, please dig in and take full advantage of these hand-selected resources. They will help your business thrive, scale and grow -- just as they have helped ours!

I go to a fair number of conferences, both as a speaker and as a plain old participant.

Some conferences are great - and some... well, not so much.

In my experience, a great conference combines three secret ingredients for success.

What are they?

Glad you asked.

Here they are...

1. Speaker management - Give me high-energy, high-content speakers who deliver the goods. Strong content delivered with authenticity, enthusiasm, and with a clear point-of-view. I don't want to hear speakers who deliver same-o, lame-o information (i.e. crap that I could just as easily read in a book or find in a Google search). I want to be shaken, stirred, riled up, smacked down, and taken for a ride. No vanilla speakers. I want you to bring the mango gelato, the sriracha sorbet, the oddballs, the freaks, the wild ones.

2. Engagement management - Don't (please don't) make me sit in a theater, an auditorium, or a meeting room and watch from my seat. I want to interact. I want to engage. I want to collaborate, communicate, and cross-pollinate with the speakers, the audience, the organizers. I want you to put the CONFER back into the word CONFERENCE. I want to strategize, conspire, and confab with all the amazing people in the room. Not just the gal to my left and the guy on my right. Not just during deeply misguided Q&A sessions that ruin even the best talks. All. The. Time. Mix it up - mini-seminars, peer-to-peer jam sessions, strategic mastermind roundtables. Put the intellectual talent of the room on stage and let's REALLY dig in.

3. Time and experience management - Never start late. Let me repeat that - never, EVER start late. No session or panel longer than 20 minutes. Less and faster is the name of the game. Take the sage off the stage and put the guide on the side. Move me around the theater - into the lobby, up on the platform, out in the hall. Mix, mingle, shake up the stale conference format. No more 1-to-many. Make it many-to-many. Or 1-to-1. Manage my time. Manage my experience. Connect me. Inspire me. Fire me up. Let me feel important. Let me plug in to the event and the people you've brought together. Stir my pot. Season my soup. I want to leave your event feeling like I'm a rock star who just played a set with the best musicians on the planet. I want to feel LUCKY to have been part of your event. I don't want to leave with information. I want to leave with insights specifically designed to help me kick some serious ass. I want to leave with my action plan for global domination AND a whole army of new friends whom I can call on to make it happen.

Can your event do that for me?

'Cuz if it can't... I won't be there. I'll just stay home. And read a book. Or jump on Google. Or watch videos on TED.com.

I don't need to travel and use up my time, money, effort, and energy going to your old school conference with a string of speakers who talk at me while I sit with a random bunch of strangers who'll never even get to know my name.

The bar has been raised. Those events are so past their expiration date that they're starting to stink like an old bucket of yogurt.

NOTE: The special offer on "The Sales Winner's Handbook" (which includes a soup-to-nuts telephone marketing strategy plus 53 context-specific scripts, templates and tools + over $200 in bonuses) expires at midnight tonight 4/18. All the details on that are online for you here.